Paramount Pictures is working on a film adaptation of Hawaii Five-O, one of the most recognizable television properties in the CBS catalog. Destin Daniel Cretton, director of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the recent Spider-Man: Brand New Day, has been tapped to helm the project. The screenplay has been entrusted to Chris Bremner and Noah Oppenheim; Guymon Casady will produce the film, which is being developed in collaboration with the estate of Leonard Freeman, creator of the original series.
The feature film is in its early stages, and Paramount has not disclosed the plot or cast, let alone a production schedule or release window. It is therefore too early to tell whether the film will retain the traditional characters and narrative framework, pick up from the continuity of the 2010 CBS series, or simply use the brand to build a standalone story. For now, the only confirmed element is the creative team moving it forward.
A television title with over fifty years of history
Hawaii Five-O debuted on CBS in 1968 and remained on the air until 1980 for twelve seasons. At its center was Steve McGarrett, a detective captain played by Jack Lord who led a special state task force battling organized crime and high-profile cases in Hawaii. The series belongs to an era when the procedural followed a very recognizable structure, but its island setting and theme music made the show instantly distinguishable across the American television landscape.
The brand has already undergone a substantial overhaul. In 2010, CBS launched Hawaii Five-0, featuring a zero in place of the letter O: Alex O’Loughlin played a new version of McGarrett, while Scott Caan starred as Danny Williams, known as Danno. The main cast also included Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park. That reboot ran for ten seasons, spanning a total of 240 episodes, until 2020.
This dual life—first as a television classic and later as a long-running contemporary franchise—is one of the factors that makes the project more substantial than a mere nostalgic revival. Paramount is not starting from a distant memory, but from a property that has proven its ability to find an audience even in the modern television landscape, complete with different rhythms, characters, and expectations compared to the 1960s and 1970s.
The transition to cinema and the weight of Cretton's choice
Translating a procedural to the big screen nonetheless entails a change in scale. The serialized nature of Hawaii Five-O is built on recurrence: a core group of investigators, a clearly defined territory, and cases solved episode by episode. A feature film will have to choose which part of this identity to prioritize. It could focus on a broader investigation, build an ensemble action thriller, or concentrate on the origins of a new team. At the moment, there are not enough indications to support any of these hypotheses.
However, the choice of Destin Daniel Cretton signals an intention not to treat the title as a minor revival. The director has already tackled a major Marvel production with Shang-Chi and has just directed Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a title that dominated the North American and international box office. For a studio, entrusting a television property to a filmmaker now accustomed to managing franchises and substantial budgets is also a way to position the project in the tier of potential cinematic events, without this automatically revealing the actual scale and ambitions of the film.
Cretton also has a personal connection to Hawaii: he grew up in Maui. While not a detail that foreshadows narrative choices, it may influence the way the film views the location that gives the series its name. Across its various television incarnations, the setting has always been part of the format's appeal. For a cinematic version, the challenge will be to prevent the landscape from remaining an interchangeable backdrop for chases and police operations, giving it instead a tangible function within the story.
Working alongside him are two screenwriters with different backgrounds. Bremner wrote Bad Boys for Life and Bad Boys: Ride or Die, films that updated an action-cop formula by leveraging the relationship between the leads and a strong spectacle component. Oppenheim, writer of the screenplay for Jackie, brings a different profile, more closely tied to biographical cinema and character work. The combination does not yet allow for defining the project's tone, but it suggests a creative room less predictable than an adaptation built exclusively as an action comedy.
For Paramount, managing the library also matters
The film arrives as studios increasingly scour their television and film archives. In a market where a familiar title can facilitate audience recognition and international distribution, libraries have become assets to put back into circulation through sequels, remakes, reboots, and adaptations across different platforms. Name recognition does not replace a narrative concept, but it reduces the initial uncertainty surrounding a new project.
For Paramount, Hawaii Five-O holds particular value because it combines CBS history, a television catalogue presence, and an easily exportable identity. The brand is well known in the United States, but its framework—an investigative team, a charismatic leader, a contrasting partner, a striking setting—is easily understood outside the domestic market as well. Cinema offers the opportunity to reformat those elements without having to adhere to the production and narrative constraints of a 20-plus-episode season.
This is not the first attempt to bring Hawaii Five-O to the big screen. Feature film versions were considered in the 1990s and early 2000s, but never reached production, partly due to rights issues. The involvement of the Leonard Freeman estate in this new development indicates that Paramount is seeking to build the project on a foundation of clearer control and collaboration compared to those unrealised initiatives.
Still, a long road lies ahead. Developing a screenplay, especially for a property with such an extensive television background, involves delicate decisions regarding tone, casting, and its relationship to the source material. Remaining too rigidly faithful to the procedural format risks producing a film with a limited scope; a complete departure, conversely, would make it difficult to explain why that specific title was chosen. The weight of the iconic theme song and the catchphrase “Book ’em, Danno” is part of the franchise’s iconography, but on its own will not be enough to sustain a relaunch for contemporary audiences.
Before any talk of filming, confirmations will therefore be needed regarding the screenplay, cast, and creative approach. For now, Paramount has assembled a recognizable property, a director fresh off a major commercial hit, and two writers with experience in compatible yet distinct styles. It is a significant industry first step, not yet the announcement of a finalized film: how the CBS procedural is transformed will reveal how much the project truly wants to update Hawaii Five-O, and how much it simply intends to rely on the power of its name.
